Lower Towamensing Township’s sewer project could go to bid in spring 2026.

Douglas Kopp, a civil engineer with ARRO Consulting Inc., told the supervisors at their meeting on Tuesday night that he hopes the project will be ready for bids by this time in two years.

Before that can happen, ARRO still has work to do on the plans, then it moves to the state Department of Environmental Protection for the Water Quality Management permit and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for the Highway Occupancy permit.

The DEP permit process alone can take 90 to 100 days, Kopp said. And he won’t even consider meeting with residents about easements until after PennDOT has gotten back to him about the HOP. He said he has seen the number of easements go from 30 to 300 overnight on a different project.

“Honestly until we get the HOP, I’m hesitant to touch (the easements),” Kopp said.

In the meantime, the supervisors approved the professional services agreement with ARRO for $103,000. Kopp said work on this phase may not cost the entire amount. If it doesn’t, then the remaining amount would be applied to the cost of work on the next phase.

“I think we have good plan of attack and I do think we’re going to deliver. This price is worst case scenario,” Kopp said. “If it takes us $70,000 to get it done, we’re not charging you any more. That difference would roll over.”

Township solicitor James Nanovic said one of his main questions for Kopp was if this would get them plans that could be put out to bid. He said Kopp told him prior to the meeting that it would get them about 80% there. They still have some additional work to be done after this phase. That work being the permit process with DEP and PennDOT.

Kopp said that the plans they got from Carbon Engineering, who was handling the sewer project before ARRO, are usable.

“I was also able to shave a little bit of time off the CAD (computer-aided design), because what they gave us was generally pretty good,” Kopp said. “I’ve got some hiccups to work through, but that’s factored in already.”

One of those hiccups involves the elevation of the first floor of houses along the proposed sewer line.

“It became clear they made an assumption on everyone’s basement elevation that it was 8 feet below the first floor elevation, which is not uncommon for this scale,” Kopp said. “There are going to be a couple homes and some other areas where we just need to verify that I do really need 8 feet for this home.”

Kopp said it might expedite the process if he asks Carbon Engineering to “clean up” some of the work they did. It would cost about $1,500 each time, and would not add to the total of the service agreement they approved.

“If that shows up on the invoices, is that going to be something that you guys are going to be opposed to. If it is, I don’t need to contact them,” Kopp said. “It’s not a big deal. We can work through it manually. It doesn’t affect the price.”

The supervisors were a little hesitant at first, but said yes since it will not add to the cost. Kopp said he isn’t certain that they would do that, but he wanted to clear it with the supervisors first.